Life's Little Pleasures

One of my favourite things about trying new dishes in restaurants is attempting to recreate the ones I enjoyed at home (not always with success, unfortunately).

On a recent girls’ lunch in Toronto, celebrating 10 years of an amazing friendship, I had the opportunity to vist Harvest Kitchen, a place where vegetarians bring their meat eating friends (in their own words). Although I am a carnivore through and through, the beautiful veg-based options bowled me over and I tried quite a few! The ones that stood out for me immediately were the ‘Meatless Meatballs’ and the ‘Mushroom French Fry Salad’. I definitely thought the latter was worth recreating at home.

The resulting salad, my version, was a huge hit with the boy. A mouthwatering mixture of warm crisp potatoes and salty mushrooms on a bed of fresh greens. It has now become a staple of our Meatless Mondays and I thought I’d share it with you all. With a few substitutions you can make it truly vegetarian or gluten free.

1. Place roasting pan in the oven and preheat oven to 425 degrees Celsius.

2. Peel and roughly cube potatoes into small uneven pieces.

3. Remove the roasting pan from oven and add 1.5 Tbsp of duck fat, spreading it around the pan. Then throw in the potatoes, coat with fat, and return to the oven.

*Roasting time will depend on your oven but may take approximately 40 minutes. Don’t forget to stir the potatoes once or twice during roasting for even crisping.4. Slice mushrooms and place in pan with 1/2 Tbsp of duck fat and the soy sauce on medium heat. Keep cooking until all liquid evaporates and continue to caramelize and brown the mushrooms.5. Wash the spinach and arugula and place in mixing bowl.6. Place mayo, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and grated garlic in a small bowl and stir to combine. 7. Once the potatoes are roasted and mushrooms are browned, combine all warm ingredients in a bowl with the greens and cover with dressing. 8.Toss to combine and plate. Sprinkle with hemp seeds for a little extra protein.I want to dedicate this post to two special ladies that always keeping me laughing. And yes, my smile does sparkle that much when I’m with these two!I hope you enjoy and give this delicious salad a try. And if you’re in Toronto, pop into Harvest Kitchen for those meatballs!

When the weather gets cold outside I have a tendency to indulge in warm, comfort food. Soups, stews and roasts feature heavily in my menus. There are few things more comforting than sitting under a blanket with a good book, snow swirling outside the windows, and delicious smells drifting from the stove. The steam envelops the room in warmth and my belly grumbles in anticipation of things to come.

However, all my comforting meals usually have a heavy meat component. All that meaty goodness is not so great on my digestion (and my waistline!!!!). So I have decided to keep trying to add more veggie based dishes to my winter repertoire. I’ve come up with this pasta dish because the shittake mushrooms still give me the meaty texture and the cream cheese allows for the comforting creaminess without being too heavy. I hope you give this a try as well.

1. Add olive oil to a saute pan and turn the heat on medium. Put the garlic and sundried tomatoes into the pan and gently fry to flavour the oil and warm the ingredients.

2. After about 2-3 add the sliced shiitake mushrooms. Keep frying them until they soften and release juices.

3. Add the cream cheese to the pan and stir to form a creamy sauce. Use the reserved pasta water to thin out if the sauce becomes to thick,

4. Place half the spinach into the pan and stir into the sauce to wilt down.

5. Add the second half of the spinach, then the cooked warm pasta and combine into the sauce.

6. The dish is ready to plate when the ingredients are all combined and warmed through. Don’t forget to garnish with some parmigiano after plating.

This pasta dish tastes very luxurious because of all that creaminess and the flavours are strong and burst in your mouth. With this one, a little goes a long way…your taste buds and your waist line will thank you!

‘Tis the season for parties, potlucks, and drop-ins. It’s the time to get your pretty on, indulge at the table, and not slave over a hot stove. If you are a regular visitor to my blog (and I hope you are, but if this is your first time…welcome!) you know that when it comes to cooking, I have a preference for all things fast and fabulous. In that vein, I’ve developed a couple go-to party bites with simple ingredients. They can be made ahead of time, even frozen, and finished off in minutes. And of course all of them have one thing in common, wonton wrappers!

LEMONY CHEESE WONTONS WITH PESTO

The key to these delicious appetizers is that I treat the wonton wrappers like freshly made pasta sheets. They’re delicious as single serve bites but also make a perfect dinner! As with any recipe, adjust ingredients to suit your taste.

2. Shred the cooked chicken breast into smaller pieces and place in a bowl.

3. Drizzle honey and sriracha sauce over the chicken and mix thoroughly. Feel free to add more sauce for more heat.

4. Beat and mix the cream cheese, avocado and lemon juice together until the cheese looks like green cream.

5. Line up the wonton wrappers and divide the chicken on them equally, about a large tablespoonful. Place the chicken down the middle diagonally.

6. Dollop the avocado cream on top and sprinkle with the jalapeno or the red pepper, depending of how much heat you want.

7. Bring the opposite corners of the wrapper together at the top. You may have to pierce them through with a toothpick to hold in position. The toothpick will be removed once you take the wontons out of the oven.

8. Place the wontons on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or oiled with cooking spray.

9. Place in the oven and bake for approximately 12- 15 minutes. Or until the wonton wrappers turn golden brown.

10. Remove from the oven, take out the toothpicks, let cool slightly, and enjoy!

CREAM CHEESE, CHOCOLATE AND POMEGRANATE WONTONS

These golden beauties are highly addictive, but baking them instead of frying will allow you to indulge without much guilt. Plus using dark chocolate and pomegranate scores high on the antioxidant scale so I guess you could say that this dessert is good for you too!

I can’t believe how early the daylight starts to fade away this time of year. It’s like the season is throwing a blanket around me and urging me to go home and snuggle into bed. I’m not new to this time change thing but it seems like the impending darkness is something I choose to forget in lieu of getting that extra hour of sleep.

The problem with feeling sleepy so early in the evening is that I don’t feel like spending time in kitchen whipping up cozy meals for two for longer than fifteen minutes. Mind you I’ve always gone the fast and fresh route as far as my meals are concerned any time of year. That is not too say that I don’t greatly admire people who devote their time to long, involved, home cooked meals. My Mom’s cabbage rolls are heaven on earth but the hours she puts in to make them is something I just can’t fathom. I’ve got things to do, people to see, places to be! And truly, there is nothing wrong with fast meals… as long as they are delicious. I’m sharing two of my go to Italian recipes for quick weeknight dinners great at any time of year!

EASY TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE

The key to this sauce is that you will not be cooking but rather warming all the ingredients in order to keep the sauce tasting as fresh as possible. So start cooking your pasta and half way through you can begin the sauce.

1. Place the oil and clove of garlic in a pan and turn the heat on medium-low. Olive oil has a low smoking point so you don’t want to overheat the pan. You are simply warming the oil and infusing it with garlic. If you want a stronger taste to the garlic then feel free to chop it, otherwise just leave the clove whole. This should take only a minute or two.

2. Take out the garlic clove and throw in the cherry tomatoes and torn basil leaves. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and stir to warm them through. Be sure that the tomatoes don’t over cook and start to fall apart and shrink.

3. Place the cooked pasta, with a small amount of reserved pasta water, in the pan with the tomatoes. Toss with the sauce making sure to coat the strands with the warm olive oil and sprinkle with the parmigiano reggiano.

I like to serve this sauce with spaghetti or linguine. That way the light sauce isn’t overwhelmed by a heavy pasta.

SPINACH AND WALNUT PESTO RECIPE

This sauce is made in minutes as long as you have all your ingredients on hand. It’s a riff on the basil and pine nut pesto which are harder to locate. I often make this pesto in large quantities and freeze in ziploc bags for later use.